Sunday, December 28, 2014

The holidays have kept me very busy in the last few weeks and yesterday was my first day back in my scrap room in quite a while. It was very hard to rush by as I was on my way to run some sort of holiday errand and not stop and get my fingers inky. I found my inspiration this week at the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge Blog. I used one of the great special hostess stamp sets available with a qualifying order, Hats Off. The paper is Pathfinding. Thanks for stopping by. Check out all of the great artwork on the Atlantic Hearts Blog for some inspiration and think about joining the next challenge!

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Welcome to the Three Amigos Mini Blog Hop! With only a few stops it' a quick and easy trip. This month's challenge was to use something from the new Seasonal Expressions Idea Book or inspired by the new products in the book. I LOVE the new Hopscotch paper pack! And there are some really great new hostess special stamp sets in the Idea Book and I used one of them on here (the background stamp and the quote are from the A Thing Well Done set. The globe is from a set in Annual Inspirations called Here We Go. A little twine, some Shimmer Trim and a few sequins. The embossed arrows are from one of our Embossing Folders.

Thanks for stopping by and now head on over to Donna's blog to see what she has created for you!﻿

Sunday, November 30, 2014

For the first time ever, Close To My Heart is offering a Cyber Monday Sale on Monday, December 1, 2014. There has never been a better time to buy Close To My Heart’s exclusive Cricut® Collections for 20% off the retail price. Whether you love scrapbooking, cardmaking, or creating 3-D projects, our four exclusive Cricut® collections make the perfect addition to any craft room! Sale starts at midnight (MST) on December 1 and ends at 11:59 pm Monday night.

Orders placed on my website and must be submitted between 12:00 am and 11:59 pm (MST) on Monday, December 1 in order to get the discount on your selected Cricut® collections. Enjoy extra savings on Close To My Heart's exclusive Cricut® collections this Cyber Monday!

As an added bonus-buy any CTMH Cricut Collection from me and receive December's Stamp of the Month, Cutie Pie, for free! Place your order on my website during this sale and I will refund $6 for your Stamp of the Month!

Email me with any questions, and if you are attending one of my Christmas card workshops this weekend and want to order early, just choose to join the workshop you are attending before you place your order and your purchases will count towards a special promotion offered on that day.

Don't forget! The new Seasonal Expressions Idea Book goes live on December 1st as well as our Deal of a Decade campaign these promotions start at 9:00am MST so they will likely not be available at the start of the Cyber Monday special.

Please contact me if you have any questions regarding how any of these promotions work.

Saturday, November 29, 2014

I used one of the new paperpacks from CTMH's Seasonal Expressions Idea Book that goes live December 1st, Hopscotch. LOVE this paper pack... love the colors and the designs of all of the papers. The colors here are Indian Corn Blue and Flaxen mostly. There's a touch of Smoothie, Sunset and Glacier from the paper pack. I embossed the 2nd layer of Indian Corn Blue with the Chevron Embossing Folder and the small white square with Arrows. The new thick Flaxen twine is fantastic! And the name twine is a little misleading because it's not your mother's twine. This is soft and really fun to work with.

Check out all of the other entries by clicking the Atlantic Hearts link above and play along!﻿

Friday, November 28, 2014

Decided it was time to finish off an layout we put together at Convention this summer. I had a very difficult time finding pictures to fit this layout mostly because of the size of the mats-they were smaller than 4x6 and because for the last few years I've been cropping most of my pics as closely as possible I'm realizing that these great layouts that use small pics are difficult and because of print quality I don't like to print my own photos.

I had to go all the way back to 1999 to find pics that I was able to crop with my scissors to fit Perfectly on the layout. Lesson learned! Every photo does not have to be edited and cropped as a 4x6 because sometimes you want something smaller.

The papers used on this layout are from Seaside and Wanderful (the blues) and the Flaxen pieces were stamped. The clusters and background stamping were done using Glitter Glam stamp set and the alpha set used for the title is Handwritten Print. The feathers are from Happy Birds. Hope you are carving out some creative time for yourself on his holiday weekend as well!﻿

Saturday, November 22, 2014

Love the CTMH Hip Pic albums. Here I used one to make a little mini address book for a co-worker that is leaving for a different job. We each filled out a page with our contact info and a personal note. There were a few blank pages for additional names in case there were others she wanted to keep in touch with. It was a fun and quick project and she loved it!

Sunday, November 16, 2014

What a FANTASTIC day I had yesterday at Buckeye's Hometown Holiday Boutique. The weather was perfect! A beautiful, sunny, mid 70's day with an ever so slight breeze! I enjoyed talking to many people-scrappers, cardmakers, and many who declared their lack of talent with pride...lol! Although I don't believe it about anyone... I've seen many who tell me they are not crafty suddenly realize they love creating. Anyway.. thank you to anyone who stopped by my booth to look, shop, chat and inquire. Also, thanks to my Mom and my Husband for all of their support and help over the last couple weeks and yesterday (such as running over to the store at the last minute to purchase a tent because it looked like maybe I should have one and thank goodness he did because it was a beautiful, sunny day and the shade was much appreciated)! I'm a very lucky woman to have such caring people in my life.

Thursday, November 13, 2014

Saturday, November 8, 2014

This is my entry for this week's Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge. If you've never gone to the Blog to check it out, it's worth it just to see the entries. So many talented people!

I used one of CTMH's Picture My Life cards as the main image on the card (the bike) and this month's SOTM It's The Little Things for the flowers. The papers and PML cards are Chantilly... one of my all time favorites.

Stop and see me at the City of Buckeye's 19th Annual Hometown Holiday Boutique! Stop by my booth to shop, talk, sign up for my 12-card Yuletide Workshop (one of the cards is above), enter for a chance to win a free stamp set, and/or participate in my free Make n Take! More info below:

City of Buckeye’s 19th Annual Hometown Holiday Boutique

Saturday, November 15th 9am-4pm

6th St. Plaza (6th Street and Monroe/Hwy 85) – Located at Buckeye Elementary School across the street from City Hall

·75+shopping booths with lots of great holiday gifts

·8 scrumptious Food Booths

·Open to the public

·Fun for the whole family!

oDemonstrations and Entertainment throughout the day including: Ice Carving Demos by Artistic Ice Creations, Desert Dance does the Wobble with Santa, Lowes Lighting Tips and Tricks and Do It Yourself Build and Grow Workshops for Kids, In the Kitchen with Estrella Mountain Community College Culinary Program, Buckeye Elementary School District band, Holiday Nails, Wrap Like a Pro, Floral demos and Photos with Santa. ﻿

Sunday, November 2, 2014

This month's "challenge" for our teeny tiny blog hop was to create something using the Artfully Sent cartridge. Well, that wasn't much of a challenge because I've been using it a lot lately, so I figured I better make it extra special.

I know I've been saying over and over how much I love this cartridge, but honestly when it first came out, I thought it would be useful, but wasn't sure how creative I could get with it. But there are so many options within all of the card choices and so much mixing and matching that can be done. The deer and rabbit(s) are from one of the popup cards and the tree is from one of the overlays. The clouds were the cutout part of the card with the clouds in it. The great thing is, I still have pieces left from these cuts that I can make two more cards out of! I had a lot of fun making this one and I know it's not for everybody, but if you feel like maybe you're in the middle of a cartoon, that is the look I was going for.

Thanks for stopping by and continue on toDonna's blog to see what she's created for you!

Saturday, October 25, 2014

I'm loving the new Artfully Sent Cricut Cartridge from CTMH. There are so many options for cards or just to cut out pieces for cards. On my entry for this week's Atlantic Hearts Challenge I used one of the pocket card pieces (the piece with the "enjoy" cutout on it) and the fox is also from the new cartridge.

I also used the Chalk It Up papers (love the color combo in that one!) as well as the Chalk It Up Assortment, Feathers and You Mean The World to Me stamp sets; black shimmer trim, and some black epoxy bubbles. I punched the bottom edge with the Chevron punch and the bow is using some baker's twine. Oh! And don't forget the black enamel stars from the Scaredy Cat Assortment.

Thanks again to Atlantic Hearts for the inspiration! And thanks for stopping by!﻿

Saturday, October 18, 2014

This week's challenge at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge was great for one of the many swing cards on the Close to My Heart Artfully Sent Cricut Cartridge. I've been wanting to play more with it and I found that the I had to modify the idea I had in my head a bit because it was different than I thought, but happy with the way it turned out. Love this style because decorating the front IS decorating the inside. I am not good at decorating the insides of my cards because my brain is spent by the time I get the fronts done...lol! This was fun and I'm going to try a lot more of these.

I used the Seaside paper for the woodgrain background and the paper fundamentals as accents (the Thistle paper). I pulled out next month's Stamp of the Month It's the Little Things for the flowers and the butterfly main sentiment are from Your Own Kind of Wonderful.

Thanks for stopping by my blog and don't forget to click on the link above and check out the other entries for the sketch challenge as well as the beautiful work by the design team. And while you're there, try a challenge! It's a new one every week and if nothing else it will get your creative juices flowing... a great jumping off point.

Sunday, October 12, 2014

This is my interpretation of the sketch for this week's Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge﻿. I made the overlay myself by laying out different cuts of the word "Happy" from the Artbooking cartridges on my Gypsy (if you don't have a Gypsy then I'm sure you can do the same and maybe even easier on the Cricut Craftroom. Then after I cut it out on the Cricut I added some colored cardstock behind some of the words.

The colors are Pixie, Glacier, Pear and Lagoon. The balloons are from Artiste using one of the stamp sets that come with the cartridge. The sentiment is also from the same stamp set. Of course... I had to add the little owl. It wasn't in the plan, but there she sat waiting to be colored and added to something in my little tray of random stuff I didn't use on other cards.

Sunday, October 5, 2014

Great Sketch Challenge this week at Atlantic Hearts﻿. It was very versatile and easy to work with and gave me a great place to start on my card with lots of room for artistic freedom...lol!

I've been wanting to get going creating with this month's CTMH Stamp of the Month Home for the Holidays. It's a great mostly holiday set and uses some of the cuts from the Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge (an oldie but a goodie). I wanted to use the set with some non-traditional colors so this is what I came up with.

The background is embossed with the CTMH Quatrefoil embossing folder. I stamped a border with the candy stamps in the set on the white cardstock behind the bear and then a few extras to add as embellishments. The colors are Pixie, Pear, and Lagoon with a bit of black and whisper. I colored the wrappers in with markers. The postage stamp and tag cuts are from Art Philosophy. I had cut a whole page of images for this set and found that one of the tag sizes was perfect for a sentiment from the Be Jolly Hostess Set. A little liquid glass, some glitter, a few gems here and there, ribbon and done!

Thanks for stopping by and if you've been having trouble lately getting started try one of the challenges out there to get your creative juices flowing! Also, thanks to all the people who run these challenge blogs!

I am having a blast with the Shin Han alcohol markers CTMH is carrying now. Here I used them with Happy Birds stamp set and Confetti Wishes paper.

I did love those old water based markers and the way they coordinated with our colors, however the possibilities with alcohol markers are so much greater. CTMH carries an assortment of 24 colors and the blending marker. You can use the markers to just color. Simple. But the coverage you will get is so much nicer than with water based inks and you don't get streaks. You simply color in and the best technique I've found is to start at the edges and then color in small circles.

You can layer colors if you don't have just the color you want. For instance on another card I needed my carmine marker, but "somebody (mom)" was using it so I took my golden yellow and colored with that first and then went over it with my Cherry Pink. Great match to the Cranberry paper I was using. On the elephant I colored in an earlier post I didn't have a light enough gray so I colored the base with Tender Pink first and then went over it with one of the warm grays and what a great affect and I got the look I was going for.

You can color different inks on an acetate sheet and use the blending pen to mix and apply them to your project.

You can use the blending pen to clean up little mistakes (coloring outside the lines-although sometimes that's a cool look too) or to add texture because it can be used to take away color.

You can use the markers to color your clear Sparkles any color you want if you don't have just the right color handy!

And so much more... I'm still learning but having lots of fun doing it. Thanks for stopping by!

Thursday, October 2, 2014

This month's challenge was to create something using one of the great Hostess Rewards stamp sets available at a great low price when you host a qualifying gathering.

Since it's time to start getting my Christmas cards made I chose Be Jolly, the oh so cute Christmas sentiment set.

What I love about this set is that it's more than just your average sentiments. They are fun and you can easily add color by coloring in parts with markers or colored pencils, and I added even more color by just lightly tracing the branches with green and highlighting the berries with red. The cute little owl peaking out from the corner is not from this set, but a hint to what you might find inside. I decided to use the sentiment as the highlight of the front of my card because on the inside.......

I've been playing with the new Artfully Sent cartridge and it's chock full of great card patterns including pop-up cards as well as envelopes, and plenty of cuts that can be used in your scrapbooks or cards of your own design. On the inside of this card the presents pop out when you open the card. I used the Owls stamp set to add these two little cuties and cut the sentiment using the Artbooking cartridge. This was a fun card to make!

A few more details: The paper is from Snowhaven; I colored the owls, mistletoe and sentiment on the front with the Shin Han markers.

Thanks for stopping by and now you can hop on over to Donna's page to see what she has in store for you!

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Had to make a quick birthday card last night so I turned to the new Artfully Sent cartridge. I saw a card that inspired me on Pinterest and knew what I wanted to do so I didn't use the cards as they were on the cartridge. Instead I took part of one of the swing cards (the piece with the candles). They candles were cutout and I put patterned paper behind the candles and gold shimmer trim behind the flames. After it was all decorated, I added liquid glass to give the candles and flames some dimension. The paper is from Confetti Wishes and I embossed the background with CTMH's Woodgrain Embossing folder. It turned out cute I think! It's only the beginning... there is so much on this cartridge.... back to my papercrafting playground!

Saturday, September 27, 2014

If you will remember, last week I posted a Halloween shadow box page that I created. This is the idea I had in my head when I started that project....lol! I don't know what happened but I guess the tree was smaller than I had pictured and it wasn't working on the scale that I stamped the moon and tree so it turned into something else. After a lot of playing this week I finally got my idea out of my head.

The black background is embossed using the CTMH Arrows Embossing Folder. I created the moon by masking off a circle on the colonial white and then sponging on colors from light blue to purple to gray to a touch of black. I tried to make it darker the further away from the circle I got.

The owls from "Owls" were stamped on black, cut out and mounted backwards so that the stamped image can't be seen at all... they have their backs to us afterall.

The ribbons were cut from the Cricut using the CTMH Artiste cartridge and colonial white cardstock with washi tape over it. I also covered a white button with the chevron washi tape. I liquid glassed the tree from Family is Forever, added a bunch of enamel hearts, stamped images from #30YearsofHappy, and Holiday Tags to hold the sentiment.

Sunday, September 21, 2014

So... when I started this project it was going to be a card and it was going to be an I Love You card. I've had an idea for the Family is Forever SOTM and when I executed it, the idea morphed into something completely different. I decided it lent itself to Halloween more than anything, but I don't send Halloween cards... so it grew and grew until I decided it would make a nice decoration to go in my seasonal shadow box frame.

Can you see Family is Forever in there? The stamped branches and leaves behind the owl are from the September SOTM. All the cuts are from various Close to My Heart Cricut Cartriges including the frame. I created the night sky and moon by temporarily fastening a cut out circle onto the paper and sponging ink around it... I started with a light blue and gradually got darker... Outdoor Denim, Purple, Grey, and just a little bit of black. I'm going to go back and try my original idea again, but I'm happy for the morphed idea because I do love this piece in the end﻿

Saturday, September 13, 2014

Finally ready and available to order!! Get the new Artfully Sent cartridge set including coordinating stamp sets today! You can order from my Close to My Heart website at http://bzscrapper.ctmh.com﻿ or if you have questions please don't hesitate to contact me!

Monday, September 8, 2014

These little cuties are from one of CTMH's special Hostess Stamp sets available at a special low price only to hostesses when they have a gathering or workshop. This great set has it's own sentiments, but I used some of the sentiments from September's special stamp set #30YearsofHappy and they went really well together... even more options!

The paper is from the Whimsy Paper Fundamentals. I just love these papers because they are so versatile and can coordinate with all of the CTMH papers! Mix and Match is my favorite thing. I colored these characters with the Shin Han markers and sponged the bottom with stamp pad ink and added a mixture of embellishments. These 3x3 notecards will make great additions to gifts or cute just by themselves when you want to remind someone that you are thinking of them always.

As always, thanks for stopping by and contact me anytime with questions!﻿

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

So... welcome to the Three Amigos Mini Blog Hop. This month's challenge was to use the #30 Years of Happy National Stamping Month stamp set. in a project. These oh so cute little stamps have so many uses. You can use them all by themselves on a little mini card or tag; even better you can use these little accents on almost any card or scrapbook page or other project. I have used at least one of these stamps on each of my last four projects.... my Owl Sheriff had a mustache... my springy owl was holding onto a gift tag... my Family is Forever card had the Love heart and the little oval You + Me and of course in this one I used a bunch of them! Here's a couple closeups:

Let me stop here and thank Susan Fogle, one of my Amigos, for Facetime Scrapping with me over the weekend and teaching me how to make one of these Pop-Up Box Cards (I prefer to call it an Explosion Card). I have sooo many ideas for this style card. I used the fantastic Paper Fundamentals Whimsy paper pack.... I LOVE these papers... little bit of gloss; little bit of pattern; little bit of embossing. I used the artbooking cartridge to cut out the sentiment frame, word bubbles, stars and fireworks. I wrapped some washi tape around sticks I had in my drawer and made little flags with another pattern of washi tape. I used the twist ties and twisted them in spirals... once I got going this was so much fun! Mine doesn't hide nicely inside of the card, but hey!... once I started I couldn't stop.... I'm still not sure I'm done...lol! And those cute little stamps from the special were a perfect addition.

So... finish your short hop (there are only three stops on this one) by checking out Donna's project this month! Thanks for stopping by!

Monday, September 1, 2014

So here we are in September! Can't believe the Summer is winding down... (although here in Arizona, there is lots of Summer left!) This card was made using the September Stamp of the Month "Family is Forever". I struggled with using this set at first, however, as I'm seeing more and more artwork done with it I have seen how versatile it can be for both cardmaking and scrapbooking. I also used September's special stamp set, #30 Years of Happy. You'll see more of this one in our Three Amigos Mini Blog Hop on the 3rd. I couldn't help myself-had to add the owls and this one slowly became the anniversary card I will give to my husband. Don't judge... I couldn't go Cold Turkey on the Owls after last month's whirlwind!

The paper is Pathfinding, the tree and flowers are from Family is Forever. I used the Shin Han markers to add more detail to the tree and make the leaves look autumny (word? it is now!). I used the Red Enamel Hearts and Bronze Shimmer Trim. For the center of the flowers I punched circles from the shimmer trim and then added liquid glass in a bubble. I like the way it turned out. Those owls are from an old Petite Perks set that I know some of you have. Under the tree I just sponged some fall colors to give the feeling of an autumn woodland floor.

I'll be posting more pics during the month with this stamp set along with some of the other great stamps and products CTMH has to offer. If you love "Family is Forever", you can get it this month for only $5 when you spend $50 on other products. (Also, don't forget the September special which is free with $30 of stamp sets from the current Idea Book!).

Sunday, August 31, 2014

So sad but true, August has come to an end. Today is your last chance to get What A Hoot, the August Stamp of the Month and your last chance to take advantage of the Picture My Life special. We have some great things coming up for September.. so stay tuned. If you were surprised by how versatile What A Hoot is and feel you must have it, click on the shopping link at the top right of my page and order it from my website-after today you won't be able to get it.

This project was inspired by a collage of borders I found on Pinterest-you probably wouldn't recognize it, but it was an opportunity to use my new favorite paperpack, Brushed and a whole bunch of different embellishments, Cricut cuts from the CTMH cartridges, and other products and use up some old stash. There is a little of everything old and new one here. It just felt good to not really have a plan and just use what I love. It started with a session of stamping about 7 of these owls and taking out my new Shin Han Markers and going at it. I took my favorite pink owl and went with it. The flowers are our old Just Blooms in white colored with the markers. Cool tie dyed affect I though...and of course a lot of liquid glass.

So.... adios for now my little princess owl. You take a rest while I start to play with September's goodies. But I still have so many ideas for him/her floating around in my head that I am sure you will see this one again here and there. And if you don't like owls... thanks for sticking with me while I entertained my obsession!

Friday, August 29, 2014

So maybe it's not so much a surprise, but I just can't help it! This card was inspired by Susan Fogle's Three Amigos Blog Hop post with her owl popping out of the front of the card. The stamp set "Great Job" was perfect for this although quite the job to cut it out. And I popped it up with a Spring... I love him... equally.... really....

Oh.. shhhh... but by the way ... I've been sneaking in some stamps from the September special in my last two posts!﻿

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Saturday, August 23, 2014

Don't forget about this month's special... buy a Picture My Life set and get a 10-pack of additional memory protectors for just $3! And spend a few more dollars on some of the great new products you know you want anyway and get What A Hoot for only $5! Somehow you knew it would come back to this!﻿

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

I think I have a problem.... here is the wedding card with some different colors. These rhinestone flowers are leftovers from the old connections club rewards and now they are finally not in my drawer! Once I got this together though I was wishing the rhinestones were more colorful... took out my new Shin Han markers that I got from CTMH and used them to color the rhinestones a bit brighter color. I used Cherry Pink and Sap Green and it was just what the doctor ordered! I added a bowtie to the groom at the suggestion of Donna Davis and love how it completes the groom. Don't worry... August is OWLmost over....lolololololol! I'm sooooo PUNNY! Yes... I have a problem.﻿

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Saturday, August 2, 2014

Welcome back to the Three Amigos CTMH Mini-Blog Hop. We are three Close to My Heart Consultants with a love for Stamping and Scrapping and would like to share our creative ideas with you. Each month we are featuring a different CTMH product and create a card, layout or other project. There are only 3 stops on this hop so it will only take a few minutes to hop through.

So this was one of the easiest Blog Hop projects for me because I LOVE LOVE LOVE this month's Stamp of the Month! I decided to play some more with the Shin Han Markers and experiment with the difference between full saturation and using the blending pen. I love them both. Also, I wanted to use light and fun colors to show how versatile this set is. At first glance it's a Halloween set, but if you love cute owls (as we all know I do!), this set can be used in so many different ways. I intend to make an effort to use it a lot this month. And I couldn't help myself ... I just had to add the googley eyes.... LOVE THIS SET!!

Once again it's been a while since I participated in a challenge. I am so in love with this month's Stamp of the Month and I wanted to make something quick today, but didn't know where to start. The Heart2Heart Challenge can usually get me pointed in a direction. My personal extra challenge was to incorporate the What A Hoot stamp set. The H2H Challenge this week was to create a project using either the Picture My Life or My Crush products. The center rectangle on the card with the cute border is from the Chantilly Picture My Life cards. It already had a sentiment on it that was perfect for the birthday card I wanted to make. I paper pieced the owl using my scraps from the Chantilly paper pack and I also used some of the Chantilly chipboard Complements (the eyes are chipboard flowers and the wings are chipboard leaves). I stamped the crown from the set on the back of our pink glitter paper and added a few tiny gems on the tips. And of course... googley eyes. Thanks for looking and check out all of the other great projects at Heart2Heart.﻿

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I LOVE all things papercrafty! So glad you could stop and check out my creations! Hope you'll come back soon! And if you leave me some love and let me know you were here I'll visit you right back if I can find you!